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T O P I C R E V I E W

CAIR67

I don't have a clue what project this model might have been. I was thinking somewhere around the late 80's to 90's era.

Overall the model has been forgotten about and battered around. The vehicle originally had winglets coming out of the wings but these have been broken off. Also looks like it possibly had canards just below the nose section. The booster and vehicle both have holes to connect each other.

I am hoping that you very knowledgable space experts out there have some idea of what this might be.

cspg

The X-37's ancestor? X-40A?

Jay Chladek

Wow, nice find. Hopefully some modeler can whip this poor abandoned model into shape. The booster might be a Minuteman III as some proposals have been kicked around for years as far as using it as a space booster (I believe OSC has done the most proposals).

I believe this is a different configuration study for one of the unmanned orbiter concepts, be it X-40 or X-37. Most designs tend to go through a few passes before they settle on what eventually flies. Just look at how many design studies shuttle had before it was finalized.

Aerospace companies come up with desktop model concepts all the time and there are plenty of still born projects out there. Some never see the light of day as the programs are still classified with those models kept under lock and key by the companies that did them. But others indeed tend to end up in private collections or dumpsters when storage space gets cleared out in offices.

Retro Rocket

The person to ask is Scott Lowther at Aerospace Projects Review, if he doesn't know what it is, it might just be a model someone came up with on their own. Also he does excellent restoration work.

Scott Lowther

It looks similar to a few things, but doesn't look *exactly* like anything I can think of off the top of my head. What it looks most like are a few of the ALS (advanced launch system) concepts from the late 80's, with a glideback booster and an expendable core. But this models proportions seem to be off for that.